The world is importing labor more than ever before. According to the UN, more than 244 million people globally have left their home countries in search of opportunities.

For women, that often means jobs in child care and the service industry. But what they sign up for is often not what they get.

In this video, an anguished Ugandan girl in a blue headscarf asks that her parents be contacted. She says she’s sick and not allowed to come back home.

No one knows where the video was shot — it’s believed to be from inside an Arab country.

But it sparked outrage in Uganda. Though no one should have been surprised. When you think of slavery, you might think about the historical trade from Africa to the Americas. But the business of slaves being sent to the Middle East is ancient, too. And right now, business is booming.

Prudence Nandaula had a job — as a teacher in Masaka, a town in central Uganda. She made about $160 a month — which is good by Ugandan standards. Enough to pay rent, send her son to school, and Prudence even had a maid.

Still, when she was offered a job teaching in Kuwait, making twice as much, she was thrilled.

“I was so excited. I thought when I go there, maybe get the money,” says Nandaula. “I’ll be able to support my boy.”

She’d been told by a friend of her brother's that it was a great opportunity.

“You are told they will give you food and shelter. Save, and come back and do something important.”

“Most of the girls recruited in Uganda are recruited by their friends and relatives,” says Mayambala Wafrika, chair of the Justice for African Workers campaign.

Wafrika says this is usually how it goes: A friend of an extended family member or maybe a buddy of an acquaintance hits you up on social media.

When Nandaula arrived in Kuwait, things unraveled pretty quickly. The family she was staying with took her passport and told her to start cleaning. Nandaula says at that moment it dawned on her: She’d gone from being a teacher to a servant in a foreign country. Against her will.

“And I was like, ‘Oh my goodness. I used to have a housemaid back home. And now I’m working in someone’s house.'”

Still, she stuck it out for a few months. But the family was verbally abusive. Nandaula says she watched other women who worked there be physically abused. She told her employers she wanted to leave.

“And they're like, ‘No, you’re not supposed to go, you are supposed to finish the contract.’ They’re talking about a contract [I] have not even signed.”

Typically, a Kuwaiti family pays a recruitment agency as much as $4,000 for a maid, on a two-year contract. A local recruiter in Uganda can make as much as $500 per girl. Everyone got paid — except for Nandaula.

She actually made less than what she made back home. And she was stuck. Even though there are an estimated 100,000 Ugandans working in the Middle East, there’s only one embassy — in Saudi Arabia. There isn’t even a consulate in Kuwait for Ugandans to get help.

“They get these girls and treat them in the same gruesome way as they would a slave,” says Wafrika.

He says the recruitment agencies judge the girls the same way slave traders would have — over a century ago.

But they are recruited because, unlike women in other sub-Saharan countries, most Ugandans speak English.

Nandaula's luck changed one day, when the family she worked with invited some friends for dinner. Those friends brought their own maid, also a Ugandan woman. Nandaula says maids are discouraged from talking to each other. But they chatted anyway, and Nandaula told this woman about the abuse.

The woman encouraged her to get out.

And she did. One morning, while the family slept, Nandaula quietly left the house.

But her odyssey was far from over. As soon as she walked out that door, her employment visa was canceled. Nandaula turned herself into the police. She spent three weeks in jail, waiting to get deported. She was lucky — some girls spend months there. An acquaintance managed to get her passport back from her furious boss. That's not usually how it goes.

The Ugandan embassy in Saudi Arabia often has to intervene.

Nandaula was able to come back to Uganda. She’s teaching again. She makes a decent living. But the economy in Uganda took a dip in the last year. Everyone’s pocket is a little tighter. She says she might try her luck in the Middle East again. But this time, she’d be so much more cautious.

“I can’t say I wouldn’t go back. If they change the system that is there, I’ll be free to go back.”

Civil rights activist Wafrika wants to see some changes, too — starting with a ban on domestic workers from Uganda in the Middle East. Uganda, he says, has enough educated professionals it can export instead. And he wants to see girls like Prudence educated about the dangers of taking work overseas. But if they do decide to go — there should be government offices in every country.

A former Kuwaiti lawmaker is facing at least 42 years and six months in prison on various convictions that include posting on Twitter comments deemed by the authorities insulting to the neighboring countries of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.

On 22 December, a court of appeal convicted Abdulhameed Dashti in absentia of insulting Saudi Arabia and sentenced him to ten years in prison, bringing his total jail term to 42.5 years. Dashti, who is currently in the UK for medical reasons, was stripped of his parliament seat to allow Kuwaiti authorities to prosecute him. Dashti also was convicted of prior charges of insulting religion, Kuwait's Emir (the country's ruler), and the judiciary.

Could any sane person believe that I was sentenced to 42 years and six months in jail for just expressing my opinion, what democracy are you talking about and what judiciary?!!!

Dashti is a critic of Saudi Arabia, in particular its war in Yemen and its 2011 military intervention in Bahrain to crush the popular uprising. He is also known for his controversial support of the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, and the Iranian regime. He faces further years in jail in a number of other cases related to comments he made.

On Twitter, while acknowledging that they do not agree with Dashti's opinions, a number of Kuwaiti activists expressed their support. Activist Sara al-Drees, who was detained in September for insulting the Emir and is currently free pending trial, tweeted:

whether you disagree or agree with Abdulhameed Dashti, that's your right..to despise him and dismiss him politically, that's also your right..but to claim that you support the free word while you are happy for his jailing for a word, then you are a liar

Like other countries members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a political and economic alliance of six Gulf countries, Kuwait criminalizes criticism of other countries. And article 4 of the country's state security crimes law punishes by at least three years in jail anyone who engages in a “hostile act against a foreign country, in a way that would endanger Kuwait to the risk of war or of severance in diplomatic relations”.

In Bahrain, human rights activist Nabeel Rajab is currently in jail on a number of charges that include “offending a foreign country”, punishable by two years in jail under the kingdom island's penal code, over tweets critical of Saudi Arabia's war in Yemen. While in the UAE, academic and economist Nasser Bin faces ten years in jail under article 166 of the penal code for committing a “hostile act” against a foreign country, over tweets critical of the killing of protesters by Egyptian security forces.

Last May, Kuwait's constitutional court ruled that expressing one's opinions on foreign states cannot be considered as a “hostile act”. Yet, it seems that judges and prosecutors will continue to send people to jail for criticizing foreign countries, in particular their neighbors.

On 26 September, authorities in Kuwait ordered the detention of activist Sara al-Drees for 21 days over tweets deemed “insulting” to the Emir, the country's ruler. The activist turned herself in to the authorities on Sunday, after the public prosecutor's office issued an arrest warrant for her.

Sara al-Drees. Photo via Twitter.

Al-Drees is a teacher, a pro-democracy activist, and an active Twitter user with 178 thousand followers. She tweets and writes about women's rights, human rights and political oppression in Kuwait.

She faces charges over comments she made on Twitter about a pardon she received for a previous jail sentence she was serving, also for insulting the Emir. On 17 July 2013, a court sentenced her to 20 months in prison, with hard labor, over tweets critical of the ruling family, the country's ruler, and the government's crackdown on local protests in 2012. She was pardoned by the Emir and released from prison on 30 July of the same year. However, her legal troubles did not end there. She now risks jail time for the same charge over tweets she posted in September this year. In those tweets, al-Drees commented on her pardon, responding to critics who kept telling her be grateful to the Emir after her pardon.

after I was pardoned and released, for a year the naives kept telling me: “be grateful to the one who pardoned you”. Whenever I wrote something they would say: “you do not repent?”. I am now guilty, because he pardoned me

and I should not have been jailed in the first place. How can we be unjustly jailed…for an opinion! Then the oppressed is pardoned as if he/she was guilty

In November 2015, she was also arrested in relation to tweets deemed “insulting to prophet Muhammad”, a crime punishable by up to ten years in jail with hard labour in Kuwait. Though she was acquitted earlier this year from this charge, al-Drees could once again be jailed for insulting the Emir, a crime punishable by up to five years in jail under the country's national security law.

Commenting on the routine legal harassment she faces, al-Drees tweeted on 19 September:

they exhaust you and drain you out of energy with one case after another until you become concerned about yourself, and get tired by your ordeals. So you give up and stop fighting. When you stop, they get what they want and they achieve their goal

In Kuwait, no one is immune from legal prosecution when criticizing the Emir and the ruling family. Earlier this month a court convicted Sheikh Abdullah Salem Al Sabah, a grandnephew of the emir, of insulting his own royal family. He was sentenced to three years in jail and ordered to pay a fine of USD $16,500 for posting Snapchat messages critical of the government, which is presided over by a member of the royal family, and in which royals hold a majority of key positions. In recent years, dozens of opposition activists, including former members of parliament, were jailed for insulting the Emir. This summer, the parliament approved an amendment to the electoral law, banning those convicted of the offence from running for office.

Zinj, Bahrain. 23rd May 2012 — Bahrainis praying at the demolished mosque site. — Bahrainis pray where Alalawiat mosque once stood in Zinj. Alalawiat mosque was one of 30 Shiite mosques destroyed after the Peninsula Shield came into the area during 16 March 2011. Photograph bybahrain14feb bilad. Copyright: Demotix

Bahrain announced it is taking precautions to thwart an ISIS threat targeting the country's Shia community next Friday. Observers are skeptic and wonder how will the same regime which has continued to wage a fierce crackdown on the country's Shia population for the previous four years following anti-government protests be entrusted to protect them today.

Following two separate attacks on Shia mosques in Saudi Arabia last month and an attack in Kuwait two days ago, the Al-Qaeda affiliate which has carved itself its own state which spans across Syria and Iraq, promises its next target will be Bahrain on July 3, 2015.

ISIS Bahraini leader Turki Al-Binali's announcement of the threat against Bahrain has since been widely circulated on social media, triggering concerns about the government's efforts to ensure the safety and security of the country's Shia population, currently at the receiving end of a security crackdown for the role they played in calling for democratic reforms during the so-called Arab Spring-style protests, which rocked the country since February 14, 2011.

Bahraini authorities have since announced several measures to be taken ahead of next Friday, the second to fall in the holy month of Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting.

Bahrain News Agency (BNA) reported that the Minister of Interior met with the Under-Secretary and Chief of Public Security as well as the General Directors of all Police Directorates to discuss security procedures.

The Ministry of Interior (MOI) tweeted via their official account the measures to be taken, and what has been discussed in the meeting:

During security meeting, HE Interior Minister ordered security procedures for all public places, including places of worship to be reviewed

Some still say the government isn't doing enough. Anonymous Bahraini Twitter user Freedom Prayers shares those photographs of cars in Bahrain and Kuwait boasting ISIS stickers being driven on streets in broad daylight:

Amid preparations to protect the mosques and their visitors, in particular the Shias, it is important to note that the same government that is announcing measures to protect those places of worship, is also responsible for demolishing Shia mosques in Bahrain during the popular uprising.

Human rights defender Said Yousif compares the government of Bahrain to ISIS:

What the system in Bahrain has done in the demolition of Shia mosques is terrorism, Takfeer, and encouragement of extremism, and what ISIS has done of bombing Shiite mosques is also terrorism and Takfeer

Takfeer is “the practice of excommunication, one Muslim declaring a non-Muslim or an apostate, an unbeliever or kafir.”

Prominent Bahraini political activist living in exile Saeed Shehabi echoes a similar sentiment:

Bahrain's dictator was first ruler to demolish mosques in 2011. He failed to defeat people. Now he is poised to use terrorism #Bahrain

The Minister had a separate meeting on Sunday with both Chairmen of the Sunni and Jaffary Endowment, as well as Minister of Justice Islamic Affairs and Endowments and Chief of Public Security. The minister called for “hard work and coordination”.

According to the report published on the MOI’s website, the chairmen discussed installing CCTVs and other technologies at places of worship. They also decided that mosques should be closed after each prayer to allow caretakers to monitor all parts of the building and its surroundings.

Extreme religious speeches will not be tolerated in Bahrain, says the MOI's Twitter account, and authorities will take “legal procedures” against anyone whose sectarian speech puts the country in danger. Yet, while human rights activists are targeted by the authorities for their tweets and public statements, little to no action has been taken against preachers spewing hate against the country's Shia population.

The minister has emphasized in his meeting in the second meeting the importance of using religious sermons and speeches to unite people and “promote national unity” explaining that politics should not be associated with places of worship.”

On a related note, Al Wasat Arabic daily reported that the largest Shia political bloc Alwefaq National Islamic Society was recently banned from practicing its political activities in their places of worship. The Ministry of Justice issued the order according to the political associations law which prohibits any political or regulatory activities in places of worship.

Meanwhile, the Information Minister confirms preparations to keep people safe according to an independent news account Bahrain News:

]]>https://globalvoices.org/2015/06/29/bahrain-takes-security-measures-following-isis-threat/feed/2Kuwait Identifies a Saudi Man as Suicide Bomber of the Shia Mosquehttps://globalvoices.org/2015/06/28/kuwait-identifies-a-saudi-man-as-suicide-bomber-of-the-shia-mosque/
https://globalvoices.org/2015/06/28/kuwait-identifies-a-saudi-man-as-suicide-bomber-of-the-shia-mosque/#commentsSun, 28 Jun 2015 19:14:08 +0000http://globalvoicesonline.org/?p=529190Kuwait News Agency (Kuna) has identified the suicide bomber of Imam Al-Sadiq mosque as Fahad Suleiman Abdulmohsen Al-Gabbaa. Authorities stated he was a Saudi national who flew to Kuwait by air on the morning of the attack and entered through Kuwait International Airport. The Kuwaiti Ministry of Interior later said the attacker was born in 1992.

ISIS had claimed responsibility for the attack on the Shia mosque which left 27 people killed and more than 200 injured. The attack came after two separate attacks in earlier weeks on Shia mosques in the Eastern province of Saudi Arabia.

This YouTube video is a slideshow of photographs compiled after the blast.

Like many other Twitter users, Qatifeed from Saudi Arabia tweeted to his 11K followers a photograph of Al-Gabbaa:

Other Twitter users shared photographs of the suicide bomber moments before he entered the main hall of the mosque. The pictures were taken from the mosque's CCTV. Bahraini activist Ala'a Shehabi shares some pictures:

The Kuwaiti government also announced it had arrested several people in connection with the attack. Among those arrested was 26-year-old Abdul-Rahman Sabah Aidan, who is reported to be the designated driver, who drove the suicide bomber to the mosque.

Kuwait declared a mourning day on Saturday and held a mass funeral to bury the 27 people who were killed in the blast at the mosque in Al-Sawabir district in Kuwait city on June 26.

Immediately after the attack, the Emir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah Al-Sabah paid a visit to the site of the blast, and later joined the people in their mourning at the Grand Mosque, the largest Sunni mosque in Kuwait. He also ordered the reconstruction of the damaged mosque.

Radio Sawa journalist Zaid Benjamin tweeted photographs and a video of the Emir's visit:

Twitter hashtags have been headlining social media, the latest being the Arabic hashtag “Kuwait is Strong” where people posted their condolences and solidarity, as well as sharing photographs showing the unity of both Sunnis and Shiites in the country.

Kuwait has shown strong unity following blast that targeted the Shias in Kuwait. People on Twitter emphasized that Kuwait is for both Sunnis and Shias and they won't allow ISIS to divide their society.

All Kuwaitis completely united and reject terrorism,what happened attempt to sabotage the Kuwaiti People's Union #KuwaitAttack#kuwait

A protestor carrying a I love Bahrain placard during a rally in Bahrain in 2013. Photograph by Moh'd Saeed. Copyright: Demotix

UPDATE: Since this story was published, Bahrain has announced it is taking steps to allocate “security resources to protect places of worship [which ] is the duty of the Interior Ministry, which is charged with protecting citizens and residents.” For more on this, check out our coverage on Global Voices Checkdesk here.

Following ISIS attacks against Shiites in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait that have left scores dead and hundreds injured, it’s not a surprise that Bahrain is on the terror group's radar. Predictions that mosques in Bahrain could be next on the ISIS hit list are being circulated on social media.

The Al-Qaeda affiliate which now controls large territories in Iraq and Syria has claimed responsibility for two separate attacks on Shiite mosques in Eastern Saudi Arabia last month, and the latest attack on Imam Sadiq mosque, the largest Shiite mosque in Kuwait City, on Friday.

On Twitter, ISIS member Waddah Alazdi issues a direct threat saying Bahrain should brace itself for an attack next Friday:

In a post circulated on Facebook and Twitter by Muharraq News, ISIS Bahraini leader Turki Al-Binali, whose citizenship was one of the 72 citizenships recently revoked by the Bahraini government, has announced the next attack will take place in Bahrain next Friday, on July 3, 2015:

Urgent: Turki Mubarak Al-Binali announces that next operation after the bombing of a mosque in Kuwait will be in Bahrain on Friday on 07/03/2015

It is not clear if the announcement is official, but it has been also published on smaller Arabic news sites.

This is not the first empty threat by ISIS to carry out a terrorist attack in Bahrain, which is why some people are skeptical. That doesn’t mean that Bahrain should not put on its proactive hat and take necessary safety measures to ensure that mosques and people are protected from any potential attack.

On May 22, a suicide bomber killed 23 people and left 102 people injured when he blew himself up in the Imam Ali Mosque in Qatif, in the Eastern province of Saudi Arabia. The following Friday, on May 31, three people were killed in a suicide bombing, which the ISIS Saudi branch Walayat Najd claimed responsibility for, and some 10 people were injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a Shia mosque in nearby Dammam.

And in November, last year, eight people were killed in Al Ahsa, also in the Eastern province, when gunmen attacked a Shia community centre, where a religious ceremony was taking place.

Many feel that the two suicide bombings targeting Shiite mosques in Saudi Arabia, which followed the Al Ahsa attack, and the attack in Kuwait, could have been thwarted had the authorities taken measures to stop them.

Bahrain is politically a perfect hub for a terrorist attack. The country is already divided by sectarian tensions following the popular uprising in 2011, when people called for more political reforms. The government pitted the conflict as a Shia population trying to wrestle power from a Sunni leadership, a storyline often echoed in international media. Bahrain is also different from both Saudi Arabia and Kuwait because Shias are closer to being a majority in the small Gulf island and are easier to target as the government has been engaged in daily street battles with Shiite protesters on an almost daily basis since protests started four years ago.

However, it remains the responsibility of the government first and the people second to provide security for all citizens equally, and not based on sect or political loyalty. Failing to secure the lives of all Bahrainis, regardless of their sect, is a sectarian statement in itself.

The question is, how can a country like Bahrain where systematic approaches based on sect are deeply infested, fight a bigger battle against ISIS. How are people expected to stand united, when state media fuels hatred and sectarian tensions in the country? Are we even allowed to blame ISIS for their irrational extremism when Bahraini religious figures, media outlets, and laws do the same?

Bahraini journalist Khalil Bohazza started a dialogue with Bahrain's Foreign Minister Khalid Alkhalifa on this issue:

Terrorism will be defeated when the amplifiers of hatred are shut. The terrorists who blew Al-Sadiq mosque in Kuwait derived their strength from the fatwas [which describe Shiites as infidels] and public incitement.

Fighting sectarianism in Bahrain should be a policy, and not a lenient preference. In a country where human rights activists and journalists get arrested for criticizing the government or “insulting public institutions”, isn't it more dangerous when prominent voices call for violent actions against other groups of people in the country? Why aren't sectarianists being punished for digging Bahrain's grave deeper into the ground?

Writer and poet Ali Al Saeed shares my concerns, and those of many others, demanding action:

Time for #Bahrain to be genuine about tackling extremism/terrorism. There are hate-preachers that must be stopped and held accountable.

One is allowed to be skeptical of the seriousness of such measures, and wonder whether all those accused of using social media to deepen the sectarian problem in Bahrain will be punished equally, or based on their sect.

What is the value of the regime's statement about fighting terrorism when the system prints on its own expense blasphemy books presenting a discourse that creates new ISIS recruits

The tweet is a picture of a book's cover page entitled “The light of the Sunna and the Darkness of Heresy” and is sponsored by General Command of the Bahrain Defense Force. In Bahrain, no one has yet been punished of accusing the adherents of the Shiite faith of heresy and calling them “Rawafedh,” a derogatory term used to describe the Shia, in state-sponsored media and from the pulpits of mosques.

This is the perfect opportunity for Bahrain's government to prove they are concerned for all Bahraini citizens and that security isn't important only when trying to crackdown on protesters in the streets.

Al Saeed still wonders whether the government is doing anything to prevent potential attacks:

What will my government do to ensure shia mosques are protected now that #isis announced next attack in #Bahrain? #pt

If ISIS is the enemy of all Muslims, Bahrainis should unite and take steps towards facing this common enemy. Since the Shiite mosques are targeted, why can't we open the Sunni mosques for everyone and pray together. Bahrain's Foreign Minister had the same idea:

We can't fight extremism with slogans, rather the establishment of states based on the rule of law and full citizenship

Bahrain's government understands the sectarian divide, given it had played a role in strengthening it. Why can't we have a policy to unite mosques and force extremists out?

I received this picture from a private Instagram account that has been shared via social media:

The text quotes Bahrain News saying, it is hard for ISIS to carry out a terrorist attack in Bahrain. The post says that security checkpoints have been heavily installed around the country, and armed control cells have been planted around all mosques to monitor the situation. Bahrain News also announced that a terrorist cell linked to ISIS has been arrested at customs, and after interrogation it was clear they were preparing to study “targeted sites.” This confirms that Bahrain is next after Kuwait, in the ISIS plan.

Although the responsibility of safeguarding citizens falls squarely on the government, it is also in the hands of the smaller communities in Bahrain to show unity and solidarity by taking their own safety measures to keep an open eye on their mosques and visitors. On a larger scale, it is their responsibility to stop using sectarian messages, and inciting hatred between sects just because they have different political ideologies.

ISIS is not Iran, it's not Saudi Arabia, it's not a country. Our political preferences are not to be the judging factor whether some people deserve to be killed by ISIS or not.

Kuwait has shown an incredible solidarity between the Sunnis and Shiites following the blast. Kuwaitis from both sects prayed side by side to mourn the death of their fellow citizens.

After the terrorist attack in Kuwait, Kuwaitis stand Sunnis and Shiites united in Imam al-Sadiq mosque, where the crime happened.

Will Bahrain be united and stand together in the face of a real foreign terrorist threat, or will we practice a blatant hypocrisy where we condemn a violent act elsewhere, but justify it on our own turf?

We don’t know whether Al-Binali’s announcement is an empty threat, but what if it wasn’t? Is Bahrain prepared?

At least 24 people were killed and scores others were injured when an ISIS suicide bomber blew himself up in Al Sadeq Mosque in Kuwait today. On social media, ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack on the Shia mosque, the fourth such attack on Shia mosques in Gulf countries in recent months.

Last month, the ISIS claimed responsibility for two similar attacks on Shia mosques in neighbouring Saudi Arabia, the heartland of Wahabbism, a fundamentalist interpretation of Islam, which claims to be the “official form of Sunni Islam.” On May 22, a suicide bomber killed 23 people and left 102 people injured when he blew himself up in the Imam Ali Mosque in Al Qadih, in Qatif, in the Eastern province of Saudi Arabia. The following Friday, on May 31, three people were killed in a suicide bombing, which the ISIS Saudi branch Walayat Najd claimed responsibility for, and some 10 people were injured when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a Shia mosque in nearby Dammam.

And in November, last year, eight people were killed in Al Ahsa, also in the Eastern province, when gunmen attacked a Shia community centre, where a religious ceremony was taking place.

And now Kuwait is at the receiving end of the terror unleashed against adherents of the Shia faith by the ISIS, an Al Qaeda off-shoot which is now in control of half of Syria and huge territories in Iraq.

The news quickly spread on social media, showing graphic images of the victims and the damage in the mosque.

This video, which shows the aftermath of the attack, is being widely shared on social media:

I see some of you surprised. If you spend years filling up people's minds with ideology which says the Shia are apostates and infidels, it will only be a matter of time before someone gets encouraged to blow himself up to kill the infidels

Iraqi journalist Mina Al Oraibi explains:

Targeting of Shia mosques in the Gulf is an attempt to ignite hatred..preachers inciting sectarianism as culpable as bombers

Kuwait is surprisingly implicated in openly and actively funding the ISIS.

US Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David Cohen recently pointed fingers at Kuwait for bankrolling some of ISIS activities:

a number of fundraisers operating in more permissive jurisdictions – particularly in Kuwait and Qatar – are soliciting donations to fund extremist insurgents, not to meet legitimate humanitarian needs. The recipients of these funds are often terrorist groups, including al-Qa’ida’s Syrian affiliate, al-Nusrah Front, and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the group formerly known as al-Qa’ida in Iraq (AQI).

Cohen continues:

Our ally Kuwait has become the epicenter of fundraising for terrorist groups in Syria. A number of Kuwaiti fundraisers exploit the charitable impulses of unwitting donors by soliciting humanitarian donations from both inside and outside the country, cloaking their efforts in humanitarian garb, but diverting those funds to extremist groups in Syria. Meanwhile, donors who already harbor sympathies for Syrian extremists have found in Kuwait fundraisers who openly advertise their ability to move funds to fighters in Syria.

Expo Milan 2015 is the universal exhibition that Milan, Italy, is hosting from May 1 to October 31, 2015. The opening ceremony was attended by the Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi. Photograph by Marco Aprile. Copyright: Demotix

The festival's motto this year is “Feeding The Planet, Energy For Life”. The official website says it's an event of

184 unique days of culture and science, innovation and tradition, sustainability and solidarity where visitors can find over one hundred national cuisines each with their own tastes, aromas, and colors.

The six-month event, which kicked off on May 1, provides a platform for different countries to exchange innovative ideas to promote a sustainable future by guaranteeing healthy and sufficient food for everyone, while respecting the planet and its equilibrium.

The exposition will feature projects from 145 countries in the form of pavilions, from nations including Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), while Saudi Arabia is absent this year. Each pavilion will represent a country, showcasing the local cuisine and food culture, and ways of using different natural products.

An article in newspaper The National UAE described the diversity among pavilions representing countries from the Gulf:

While the UAE’s sand dune design focuses on landscape, the sails surrounding Kuwait’s building represent the region’s seagoing traditions, while Oman’s fort-style pavilion and Qatar’s souq find their inspiration in traditional architecture.

Taking a different approach entirely, Bahrain’s pavilion appears modest from the outside, but hidden inside is a series of gardens that has entranced visitors.

Official videos give a glimpse on some of the projects, including Kuwait's and UAE's pavilions.

The participating GCC countries share in common that they're all desert areas, with a climate that makes water scarce and providing food sometimes difficult. Innovative water management schemes being a keystone for agriculture in the Gulf, the GCC states designed their initiatives to overcome these challenges.

Qatar

The Qatari Pavilion takes on the theme “Seeding Sustainability Innovative Solutions for Food Security”. The overall look of the pavilion represents an old traditional market, a “Souq”, consisting of a central space that is designed to look like a traditional food basket, a “Jefeer”, and a rooftop garden with interactive technology features.

“Challenge of Nature” is the theme of Kuwait's pavilion. It refers to the country's three main sustainability challenges: water, agriculture, and energy. Kuwait took steps to address these challenges, which are presented in the country's pavilion, designed to be a small fortress made of glass sails.

The small Gulf island of Bahrain went big with its pavilion, living up to the name previously given to Bahrain, “The Land of the Million Palm Trees”. The Bahraini pavilion consists of ten distinct fruit gardens representing its agrarian heritage and culture dating back to the ancient civilization of Dilmun.

Archaeology of green. The Bahrain of Expo 2015 is going to be a big fruit garden.

At the end of festival, the Bahraini pavilion will be repatriated, rebuilt, and serve as a botanical garden.

Oman

The sun, sand, and sea are the three natural elements that make up the Omani pavilion, built on a theme of “The Heritage in Harvest”. Oman emphasized the importance of water for its agriculture across time. The pavilion is split into two parts: the western part (a fortress where visitors can watch multimedia shows about Oman's landscape), and the eastern part (where a castle stands, drawing in visitors to experience an atmosphere of the Arabian Nights).

The Emirati sand dune pavilion is set to show how the UAE benefits from its desert climate under the theme “Food for Thought—Shaping and Sharing the Future”. The exhibit features a “state-of-the-art auditorium” that screens a short film about the life of a palm tree. Visitors can learn more about the UAE through various high-tech interactive installations.

Like Bahrain, the UAE is planning to rebuild and move its pavilion to Masdar City, on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi at the end of the fair.

“Such events will increasingly take place in countries where democratic systems are not so well developed and such shows serve as propaganda for the political regime.”

Herzog was originally asked to developed the master plan for this year's Expo, along with other architects, and eventually left the project because organizers were not open to his ideas and preferred sticking to “the same kind of vanity fair that we've seen in the past”, he says.

Dubai will host the global fair next in 2020 with a new theme “Connecting Minds, Creating the Future”. UAE's pavilion has dedicated an exhibition to celebrate Dubai's win and offers a glance into the next Expo. It's estimated that Dubai will invest more than DHS 30 billion (around $8 billion) in new infrastructure. The UAE also promises (like Italy did) that the event will create more than 200,000 jobs between 2013 and 2021.

There are not yet any available official data on how much the GCC countries spent on their pavilions for Milan EXPO 2015.

The World Intellectual Property Day, an event organised by the World Intellectual Property Organization, is held on April 26 of every year to “celebrate innovation and creativity.” The rights granted by intellectual property laws, such as copyright, are meant to draw a balance between the rights of creators to make a living out of their craft, and the rights of members of society to have fair access to these cultural works. One of the ways in which this balance is achieved is by making copyright law last for a temporary period of time and not forever.

When the term of copyright protection expires, the work enters the public domain. Works in the public domain can be copied, shared, and translated by any person for free and without the need to seek anyone's permission. It is very important for us to have access to freely available public domain works because they make up many of the building blocks that we use to create new cultural and scientific works.

Figuring out how when this term expires can be a difficult task because it differs from one country to the next and varies depending on the work in question. For example, books and other literary works are protected in the Arab World from the moment the work is created for the entire lifetime of the author plus 25, 50, or 70 years after his death.

Duration of copyright protection of books

The majority of Arab countries protect books for the lifetime of the author plus 50 years after his death as a result of their international obligations under the TRIPS and the Berne Convention. Bahrain, Morocco, and Oman provide a longer copyright term than the rest as a result of their signature of a free trade agreement with the United States, not too different from the infamous TPP currently in the works.

The term could be more complicated for different kinds of works. For example, even though the majority of Arab countries protect photographs for the same duration as books, some countries provide a shorter term of protection for photographs that is calculated from the moment the photograph is taken or published.

Duration of copyright protection of photographs

The charts above show that calculating copyright term is complicated. For example, “Afghan Girl” by Steve McCurry was taken in 1984 and published in National Geographic in 1985. The photo has been in the pubic domain in Libya since 1991, in Saudi since 2010, in Yemen since 2011, and remains protected by copyright in all countries where the term is linked to the lifetime of the author because Steve McCurry is still alive.

Should countries that have a shorter term make everyone's life easier and extent their protection to match those that protect copyright for the longest period? The argument often presented by those who support a longer copyright term is that the author of the work spent time and effort to give birth to his work and therefore deserves to have his work protected in a manner that makes it possible for him to make the profit he deserves, which should consequently encourage him to create more works.

The argument against extending copyright terms is that there is no evidence that authors would feel more incentivised to create new works if copyright granted protection for their work for 70 years instead of 50 after their death. On the contrary, users in countries such as Bahrain, Morocco, and Oman are clearly disadvantaged by the longer term because they have to wait for 20 years longer than their Arab neighbours before universities, students, and other users can legally copy, translate, and use old works. This 20 years difference can easily make sectors that rely on copyright, such as the education and entertainment industry, more expensive to operate than their neighbours.

This is not to say that things are perfect in countries where the protection lasts for the lifetime of the author plus only 50 years, this duration is already too long and practically means that works created by others during our lifetime is not likely to join the public domain except after we die. Copyright laws in the Arab world provide exceptions that allow users in certain circumstances to copy and utilise works without the permission of the author, but no Arab country has a “fair use” exception and the existing exceptions are limited and do not satisfy the needs of the users of creative works on the internet.

Arab countries should not extend the length of their copyright term without thinking of the consequences that this will have on the ability of society to access knowledge and culture. Additional protection does not necessarily mean a greater incentive for authors to create and certainly does not create a better copyright system.

Hundreds of Yemeni and Arab supporters rallied at the Marble Arch and then marched to the Saudi Arabian Embassy in London in a protest against the attack on Yemen. Photograph by See Li. Copyright: Demotix

Gulf Arab countries are stepping up the war on anti-war activists in the region. Kuwait and Bahrain have jailed activists for speaking up against the Saudi-led war on Yemen. This crackdown continues in the steps of a historic trend across the region to rein in opposition voices.

Hundreds of people have been reportedly killed in fighting in Yemen since Saudi Arabia launched a military campaign against the country on March 26. Backed by its Gulf Arab allies, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Sudan and Saudi Arabia started an airstrike operation, dubbed Decisive Storm, against Houthi fighters who took control of Yemen in January.

On March 26, two people were arrested for “exploiting situation in Yemen to disrupt the peace and endanger security and civil order,” according to a tweet by the country's Ministry of Interior:

2 persons arrested for exploiting situation in Yemen to disrupt the peace and endanger security and civil order #Bahrain

In a statement, the ministry highlighted that a delicate situation was prevailing in the region and special measures had been taken by Bahrain and other GCC countries to solve an internal Arab matter as well as to support the legitimacy, security and stability in Yemen.

The Interior Ministry warned against any attempt to exploit the current situation and cause disunity among the ranks of citizens and residents by spreading malicious information through digital media or issuing statements against the approach of Bahrain.

The Interior Ministry said it will take legal action against anything that could risk the safety and security of the society and stressed that the situation required strong national unity to promote security, general order and stability.

According to Index on Censorship, Rajab, who is already awaiting trial on other charges related to his use of Twitter, was arrested on two new additional charges:

On 2 April 2015, security forces surrounded Mr. Rajab’s home and arrested him in relation to two new charges involving a series of recent tweets and an opinion piece published in the Huﬃngton Post. The ﬁrst charge is for “insulting a statutory body” in connection to his documentation of mistreatment and torture in Bahrain’s Jau Prison. The second charge of “spreading rumors during wartime” relates to his reporting on civilian deaths in Yemen, in contravention of a government prohibition of any public mention that is critical of the conﬂict. If he is convicted on all current charges, Mr. Rajab could face more than 10 years in prison.

Rajab is still in prison, awaiting trial.

Kuwait too has intensified its crackdown, arresting two activists on April 2, who were held for five days and questioned over their tweets on Yemen. Former MP and lawyer Khaled Al-Shatti and academic and writer Salah Al-Fadhli were both arrested over comments they wrote on Twitter, criticising the Saudi-led airstrikes in Yemen, which Kuwait is involved in, and objecting to Kuwait's involvement in the operation. The tweets were seen by the authorities as offensive to the Amir (ruler) of Kuwait and critical of neighbouring Saudi Arabia.

Tomorrow lawyer Khalid Al-Shatti and Dr Salah Al-Fadhli will be brought to the prosecutor's office for demoralizing the army and interfering with the Amir's authorities

The two were freed on a 10,000 US dollar bail each.

On the Washington Post's blog Monkey Cage Madeleine Wells, a PhD candidate in political science at the George Washington University, explains the underlying causes which has led Kuwait to nip such dissent in the bud:

What has changed since that would lead Kuwait to join with its Arab allies in a potentially controversial and sectarian cause that could rock the boat with its Shiite allies at home? The answer is that Kuwait, along with many of its neighbors, has become more authoritarian in the aftermath of the region-wide and domestic uprisings that started in late 2010. The ruling elites of the Sabah family are reeling from the cross-class Islamist-tribal-youth coalition that has only intensified its demands for political reform since the Arab Spring, in addition to intra-family factionalism and allegations of coup plotting. To deal with this situation, Kuwait has revived some unique ways of stemming the ongoing opposition movement. In 2014, over 30 people were deported and stripped of their citizenship for supposedly undermining the country’s security. Most recently, at least 18 people were reportedly arrested at an March 23 anti-government protest, including regional human rights defender Nawaf al-Hendal, who had addressed the United Nations Human Rights Council only three days earlier. Hendal has since been released but his case has been referred to Kuwait’s Criminal Court.

More importantly, in the past few months it has become clear that there is not only a red line for Kuwaitis criticizing the emir, but a taboo on criticizing Kuwait’s regional allies as well. Several other Kuwaitis who have criticized the Saudi regime or involved themselves in public domestic opposition campaigns have been targeted as well.

She further explains:

This regional criminalization of dissent is something that has been facilitated by the Gulf Cooperation Council’s Security Pact, which Kuwait was the last state to sign. The pact has given legal means for the persecuting of opposition forces all over the Gulf, ostensibly on security terms.

Such a crackdown is having support on the ground. On Twitter, Kristin Diwan, a political science professor and Arabophile, tweets a link to an article in a Kuwaiti daily praising the crackdown:

Back in Bahrain, Rajab is accused of “distributing false news.” Bahraini blogger Ali Abdulemam, who was forced to flee his country and was stripped of his nationality, wonders if other people spreading false news will also be punished. He tweets:

Will the Foreign Minister be held accountable for distributing false news and harming a country Bahrain holds diplomatic ties with?

The tweet refers to a tweet made by Bahrain's Foreign Minister Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa on April 5, claiming that Kuwaiti customs and security have uncovered a shipment of Iranian explosives, on their way to Bahrain.

This isn't the first time a war abroad has had repercussions in the Gulf. This trend is actually older than some of the countries that are in the Decisive Storm coalition.

In 1956, when the United Kingdom, France and Israel participated in the Suez Crisis, Bahrain witnessed a labour strike in protest against the attacks. A week after the strike, protests and clashes reached British companies and Bahrain seized the opportunity to deal with its domestic problems. The popular High National Council that represented the opposition at the time was dissolved and its leaders arrested and sentenced to exile. A month later, martial law was declared and all publications were banned [1]. Many would consider that an overreaction, considering that Britain had its own wave of protests where the Labour Party led an anti-war campaign that at one point developed close to a fist fight in the House of Commons [2]. Needless to say, the UK did not close down or dissolve the Labour Party.

A 1959 document, named “Internal security schemes in Qatar and Bahrain. Code BA file 11914“, details the measures the British and local forces were given to counter any potential protests in response to potential military operations. It included eavesdropping to wireless communications, a move that is still very much in place, as a Kuwaiti newspaper reports:

Alshahed Kuwaiti newspaper: New equipment and a special attack force to track suspicious Twitter users

In the 1980s, during the first Gulf war between Iraq and Iran, Kuwait deported a number of those assumed to be Iraqi-opposition or anti-war activists, including undocumented Kuwaitis as well as Iraqis, even though Kuwait was on the side of Saddam Hussein at the time. Some estimate the number of those deported at over 60,000.

While the recent wave of crackdown on anti-war voices is alarming within the current situation, there appears to be a concerted effort to amplify the sound of war drums. From the single song “Oh Welcome War” to the “Decisive storm poet,” a new identity is being formed around the culture of war in the region.

Journalist Abbas Al Lawati tweets about a song by a Saudi singer entitled “Welcome, War”:

What is more alarming is bringing religion into the equation, pitting the war as one between Sunni Muslims against Houthi “apostates”. A group of Bahraini organizations published a full page paid advertisement in a pro-government newspaper declaring Houthis apostate and excommunicating them. The list of NGOs include Karama Human Rights Group and a drug rehabilitation institute.

Some schools and universities will be closed in Saudi Arabia tomorrow as a major sandstorm hits the kingdom. The sandstorm is also affecting neighbouring Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait, where visibility has dropped as gusts blow sand and dirt into the sky.

Online, netizens share photographs and videos from the storm – common in such arid and semi-arid regions.

Kuwaiti opposition leader Mussalam Al Barrak was sentenced to two years in jail for insulting the country's ruler. Photograph shared by @AlziadiQ8 on Twitter.

Kuwait sentenced leading opposition politician Mussallam Al Barrak to two years in jail for “insulting the country's ruler.” The former member of the Kuwaiti National Assembly (parliament) is charged for a speech he gave in October 2012, in which he threatened to depose the Amir of Kuwait Shaikh Sabah Al Ahmed Al Jaber Al Sabah, telling him that the people of Kuwait would not allow him to practice “autocratic rule.”

He was arrested on October 29, and released on bail four days later pending trial. In April 2013, he was sentenced to five years in prison, and a Kuwaiti appeals court reduced the sentence to two years yesterday.

When Al Barrak was first arrested in 2012, Amnesty International issued the following statement, describing his arrest as “outrageous”:

“The arrest and prosecution of Musallam al-Barrak, on account of his peaceful criticism of Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al Sabah, is outrageous and is yet another manifestation of the increasing restrictions on freedom of expression and assembly in Kuwait,” said Ann Harrison, Deputy Director for Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme.

“He did not incite violence or hatred but was engaged purely in exercising his right to peaceful freedom of expression – the Kuwaiti authorities must drop the charges against him and against anyone else facing similar charges for peacefully expressing their views.”

For many, the charges are aimed at silencing Al Barrak, 59, an outspoken Popular Action Bloc member, who has been an MP since 1996.

According to Kuwaiti blogger Mohammed Almutawa:

#Kuwait Appeals court sentences former MP Musallam Al-Barrak to two years in prison for remarks deemed to undermine the Amir

The jailing of Mussallam Al Barrak for views he holds or views he expressed is a stark violation of human rights and his right to free expression. It also shows that Kuwait is regressing in its human rights record

People can't believe how an activist who has lived his life fighting corporate corruption is in jail while those who steal public money and are lead corruption are free

Many Kuwaitis took to Twitter to raise alarm about the jailing of Al Barrak under the hashtag #سجن_ضمير_الأمة, which translates to “the jailing of the nation's conscience” as Al Barrak is referred to by his supporters.

A week before hosting the opening ceremony and first game of the Asian Cup 2015 on 9 January, Melbourne has had two days of 39° and 38°C(102° and 101°F) temperatures with an overnight minimum of 27°C. Adelaide, to the west of Melbourne, experienced 44° and 37°C (111° and 99°F). These temperatures are similar to the highly controversial averages expected for 2022 World Cup host Qatar. However, given the variability on the southeastern seaboard, individual games could be much cooler. A pleasant 22°C (72°F) is forecast for kick-off day.

The soaring temperatures brought severe bushfires to the states of Victoria and South Australia.

You can follow the official Twitter hashtag at #AC2015 and the AFC’s Instagram account. Most of the teams have their own Twitter accounts and Facebook pages. So does the mascot, wombat Nutmeg @nutmeg, seen here with a well-known sports fan:

More than 1,000 stateless children in Kuwait are not allowed to go to school. “Your silence on preventing Bidoon children access to education is a crime,” reads the placard on the left. The other one reads: “I have a dream. But I am Bidoon.” Photograph shared on Twitter by @nawaf_alhendal

While international NGOs are actively trying to save Syrian refugee children from falling behind in school, there is another Arab country that is systematically denying an education to a group of children. As schools opened across Kuwait in September, over 1,000 children from the Arab nation's “stateless” Bidoon community (“bidoon” is Arabic for “without nationality”) stood outside school gates crying, because they were not allowed to enter the premises with the rest of their classmates. The reason: lack of birth certificates.

The Kuwaiti state refuses to issue birth certificates to stateless children, denying their very existence from the moment of their birth. The Bidoon issue is a long-standing one in Kuwait, but the government is now using different tactics to isolate and ostracize members of this group. Ironically, the barring of Bidoon children from entering elementary schools is happening in a school year following one in which some of the top high school graduates were Bidoon girls. These students, however, despite having exceptionally high grades, were still not allowed to pursue undergraduate degrees at Kuwait University.

Bidoon adults are often stereotyped as criminals. In every instance of a highly publicized crime involving stateless individuals, the concluding rationale is that this is typical and expected behavior from the “uncivilized Bidoon”, which justifies labeling them as unworthy of fair treatment. However, it is important to acknowledge the vicious circle that governs Bidoon life in Kuwait. Barred from attending public schools, and usually unable to afford private education, the only employment easily accessible to the Bidoon are minimum wage jobs. This leaves opportunities for a bright future painfully restricted, though so many of them have ambitious, dreams and talents similar to that of any Kuwaiti citizen.

By depriving Bidoon children of the right to attend school, Kuwait is perpetuating a damaging stereotype and intentionally sentencing an entire generation of innocent children to a lifetime of illiteracy, paving the way to unemployment, drug dealing, crime, and resentment. Too often, I see Bidoon boys no older than eight or nine years old selling watermelons on the street during Kuwait’s smoldering summer, or peddling cheap light-up toys at stoplights in the evenings. These children are absolutely conscious of how drastically different their daily routines are from those of other kids.

When Bidoon children were denied entrance to their schools during the first week of school this year, only a handful of cases were initially mentioned on social media. Some Kuwaitis volunteered to cover their tuition and buy them the new uniforms required for them to attend school — before discovering the true source of the problem was the lack of birth certificates.

It is striking that the only real effort to rescue these children from a lifetime of limited possibilities came from Kuwait’s civil society. The Teachers’ Society of Kuwait launched an initiative called “Katateeb Al Bidoon”, and called on educators to volunteer to teach Bidoon children at The Teachers’ Society’s residence. Several did, and Bidoon children did indeed show up in uniform, lunchboxes in hand, eager to learn anywhere and at any time. But as selfless and noble as this initiative may be, it cannot be denied that these children are receiving an improvised form of education in a place that isolates them from their peers.

In the month of October, various groups protested in front of Kuwait’s Ministry of Education demanding that Bidoon children be allowed to return to school. The most heart-wrenching aspect of the protests was that they took place at 10am, with Bidoon children showing up in their school uniforms, carrying posters, at a time when they should have been sitting in their classrooms, not protesting being denied their universal right to education. Imagine the psychological trauma and confusion this is going to inflict.

Here are some photographs from the protests by Kuwaiti activist Nawaf El Hendal (used with permission):

In my public elementary school, I learned to read and write in both Arabic and English, to count, play the piano and paint, and I learned many of the basic social skills I've needed to get by in my current adult life. These are things that many of us may have taken for granted as children, but as adults, we absolutely cannot underestimate how important they are in shaping individuals into responsible and active citizens. Moreover, we cannot underestimate the inevitable, long-term consequences of over 1,000 children not having access to that essential experience. Not knowing how to write a sentence is in itself a prison sentence.

It is time to stop punishing innocent children and making them pay the price of dirty politics. Schools are meant to be places that help children flourish, feel secure, grow more aware of their unique qualities and endless capabilities. But this year in Kuwait, schools have become places that turn Bidoon children away. It’s time to rectify this transgenerational mistake by legislating inclusive policies, not new means of segregation.